R Story, Aged 15

I R J, am writing this to show that anyone, no matter who they are, where they come from, or what their background was like, can play a major role and help change someones life even if they are halfway across the globe. I don’t come from the best background; I’m a young person in foster care from London, who has grown up seeing things any child on earth shouldn't have to see. I have been involved, and a lot of the time the source of many violent family clashes and events. As a result of my upbringing I was placed, and currently still am in foster care until the age of 18, and yet I’m still able to make a change alongside many other young people who are or have been in similar predicaments.

However some of the fellow young people have gone through much more severe circumstances which resulted in them having to go into care, my story is nothing compared to some of the other young people’s, but now we the young have joined forces to help change the world by working with Basti Ram. We may all be different in our own ways but one thing makes us all the same. We are all Global Citizens, and as global citizens, each and every single one of us stands against the biggest injustice of our time. Poverty. We need to learn, and take action, to change the rules that trap people in this broken system.

Me, alongside a small minority of these global citizens, and fellow young people have over time congregated at meetings, and worked together to join this charitable group known as Basti Ram. This spring Basti Ram decided to do something that may not have been expected, and in many ways, quite a unique approach to battling poverty in less economically developed countries such as India, where poverty is part of its citizen’s everyday lives. People such as myself have commonly thought of poverty to be money related, I.E the poor having to live in slums or on the street, or having to walk 2 kilometres to fetch water for their families, and as a result of joining forces with Basti Ram it has allowed me and my peers to see such events up close and gain that first hand experience of seeing such high levels of poverty.  

Basti Ram decided to team up with a group of young people including myself who come from one of London’s most deprived areas, who in many respects have grown up with their own fair share of poverty in their lives. These young people are individuals who have once been in foster care or still are in their current foster placement due to family related reasons making them unable to live an ordinary life with their birth family. There are many different reasons as to why these children may have come into foster care, i.e. their parents not being physically or mentally able to care for them, or their household was an unsafe environment for the young person. Each of the young people have their own story as to why they have gone into the care system. This commonly unthought-of form of poverty is quite common in many of London’s young persons lives today, one example being myself, and is not usually the first thing that comes to mind when asked the definition of poverty or what poverty stands for or means.

Myself and the other young people have traveled out to the depths of rural India where poverty levels are high to help Basti Ram on their mission to eradicate poverty once and for all. My role in the mission is the same as the other young people in the group and that is to work with, and teach Maths and English to fellow young people and children of India in both a school and a boy’s home. This idea of putting two groups of people who have seen the ugly side of poverty together and working with each other will show me and the others how we take everyday life in England for granted, but it will also show me how even though these kids that I am working with live in much less luxurious conditions, and live virtually off of nothing, they are still happy! It will give me the chance to appreciate my life a lot more when seeing how these children live. It will also be beneficial to the children as well as I can apply my own knowledge gained from education, and pass it onto them, giving them that little edge to do better in life than expected. I have come to realise that education is the only lifeline for these children, as it will provide them with a more stable job in the future and possibly a way out of poverty. A greater chance at life.

Mine and the other young people’s small contribution of coming to India for two weeks to teach and work with children may not seem like a lot, but it will in fact make a major difference to these children’s lives, and also I as well as the others will have played a major role in helping turn these children’s lives around and giving them that little bit more of a head start to their route out of poverty.

I believe that EVERY child should be born with the same rights to life as every other child, and that no human being should have to live in poverty full stop, but at the moment it is inevitable. That is why me alongside fellow young people are taking part and working with Basti Ram to contribute towards the eradication of poverty not just in India, but across the globe.